EP 0,321,232 discloses a disposable absorbent article such as a diaper comprising a pair of tape tabs attached to an end region of said diaper. Each of the tape tabs exhibits on its respective user's end a fastening surface which has one or two exposed rectangular adhesive areas adjacent to a rectangular strip of a hook fastening element. This construction provides a combination of a mechanical and an adhesive closure mechanism when attaching the tape to the landing member thereby securing the diaper to the wearer's body.
EP 0,974,326 also discloses a disposable absorbent article such as a diaper having a pair of tape tabs attached to a first end region of said diaper and a landing member attached to a second end region of said diaper whereby the user's end of the tape tab comprises both mechanical and adhesive fastening means. It is disclosed that the exposed adhesive area of the tape tab may become contaminated with fiber elements when adhering the tape tab to the fibrous landing member. EP '326 discloses a release treatment of the exposed surface of the fibrous landing member in order to minimize or avoid, respectively, damaging of the fibrous landing member and/or contamination of the exposed adhesive area on the tape tabs.
Assemblies providing both a mechanical and an adhesive fastening mechanism are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,673, U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,525, U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,730, WO 99/06,600 and EP 0,418,951. U.S. Pat. No. '673, for example, describes a mechanical fastening element comprising a multiplicity of flexible hook elements emanating from a backing layer and comprising stems terminating in hook heads wherein the top portions of the hook heads and/or at least part of the interstitial spaces between the stems are coated with a hot-melt pressure sensitive adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,265 discloses a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape fastener comprising a backing having an array of upstanding stems distributed across at least one face, and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer filling the spaces between the stems where the average thickness of the adhesive layer is less than the average height of the stems. When adhering the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape fastener to a sanitary napkin, the napkin can be releasably attached to an undergarment by allowing the stems to penetrate into openings of the fabric of the undergarment until the pressure-sensitive adhesive becomes releasably bonded to the fabric.
The assemblies disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,673, U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,525, U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,730, WO 99/06,600, EP 0,418,951 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,265 require in addition to the adhesive layer employed to adhere the mechanical fastening element to a substrate, a further adhesive layer applied to the top portions of the hook heads and/or to at least part of the interstitial spaces between the stems.
Disposable absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins, panty liners and incontinence pads, comprising mechanical and adhesive fastening means arranged separately from each other on different portions of the disposable absorbent article, are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,652 discloses, for example, sanitary napkins comprising adhesive strips on the garment side of the main body of the sanitary napkin and mechanical fasteners on the side wrapping elements. U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,790 discloses sanitary napkins having adhesive fastening means, mechanical fastening means or combinations of adhesive and mechanical fastening means which are arranged separately from each other in patches, for example, on the garment side of the main body of the napkin or on the side wrapping elements.
Sanitary napkins, for example, need to be capable of reliably and releasably adhering to a variety of natural or synthetic fibrous materials such as cotton, silk, nylon, woven, non-woven, knitted and/or microfibrous materials without damaging such materials. These requirements are fulfilled by the sanitary napkins available in the state of the art to an insufficient extent only.
It was therefore an object of the present invention to provide an assembly which is capable of releasably adhering to a variety of fibrous materials through a combination of a mechanical and an adhesive bonding mechanism and which does not exhibit the shortcomings of the fastening surfaces of the state of the art or exhibits them to a lower degree only, respectively. Other objects of the present invention will be readily derivable form the following detailed description.